Neither Lady nor Pirate (Complete)

Chapter Six

Check it out! Another Tuesday update.  God is great. :)

I've been on a roll lately. You should call be butter (ba dum tss).

Anyway... Here's where the fun really begins. :D

I mean fun loosely because well... You'll see.

XOXO

sophie9630

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SIX

Their first encounter with another ship came on the two-week mark since Abbie had been aboard The Iron Lady.

It had been a relatively calm day; the breeze propelling their ship slowly but steadily through the peaceful Atlantic waters. Abbie was fascinated that such little wind could make the boat move, and had that day stood on the bow watching the hull slice through the waves like a knife to soft butter.

The crew had spent the morning swabbing the deck, taking inventory, and clowning around when they thought Port wasn't looking.

Abbie had secluded herself in her room, avoiding the pirates at all cost; cleaning was not an activity she desired to do in her pastime. But Port had dragged her outside and insisted that as a member of The Iron Lady, Abbie was going to have to pull her weight.

Abbie pointed out indignantly that she was not a willing member of the crew. Port had simply laughed. "All the more reason for you to get to work!"

She and the captain were now below deck, polishing the pride and joy of The Iron Lady. The iron cannons were indeed very large and very intimidating. They were six feet long and two feet wide with broad muzzles pointed to round windows that were currently safely secured.

In piles at every base were dozens of round cannon balls, which Abbie guessed weighed several pounds each. She could easily imagine the damage inflicted by their deceptively small size if they were propelled with enough force.

Abbie was working quietly, unsure of what to say to Port while they sat alone in the small dark room. Even though above deck the sun was blazing, below deck it looked almost dark as night. It had taken several minutes for Abbie's eyes to adjust, and she still had a tough time distinguishing the dark iron cannons from her surroundings.

They had left the door wide open, but the sun's rays only encompassed a small portion of the room. Now she and Port were at the opposite end of where they'd begun.

It had taken most of the morning to clean and shine the dozen large mortars, and because Port seemed to have a strange pride in their appearance, each had to be gone over a second time to reach satisfaction.

Two weeks ago Abbie's arms would have been screaming in pain after the repetitive, strenuous scrubbing she'd been doing for nearly an hour. Now, they were still sore, but the aching in her arms gave Abbie a sense of pride.

She could almost see Haughtington's expression of disdain. What Lady-to-be would ever spend her time cleaning when there were perfectly able maidservants and manservants to do the job for her?

In the last several days as Abbie adjusted to and explored life aboard a pirate ship, she had been thinking a lot about her fiancé and his never-ending contempt. Though he was hundreds of miles away from her, Abbie took every opportunity to do the things she knew he would strongly disagree with, thinking of him watching her as she disobeyed the rules that had been borne in her blood.

She took pleasure in running up and down the deck for sport; competing with the men for extra pieces of fruit for dinner. She laughed loudly and often, filling the air with her delight. She would arm wrestle, losing more frequently than winning, but Abbie never backed down from the opportunity to try.